LawrenceA

Yes, the music was good, and appropriately unnerving at times. The cinematography was adventurous, too, attempting to do something different, and it often reflected the main character's deteriorating mental state. Usually, if I rate something a 5/10, it means that I recognize that there's merit in the film, but it's just not for me, for whatever reason. As several people have voiced admiration for this movie, I realize that my issues with it are my own, as in I just "didn't get it".

Cremator (1969) & Dillinger is Dead (1969) - both 5/10 Cremator is a Czech film, recently shown on TCM, about an odd family man and crematorium operator in the WWII era. Rudolf Hrusinsky stars and is on screen for most of the film's running time, usually talking in voice-over or to other characters. His voice grated on my nerves, and I was bored nearly to slumber. It strives for dark humor, I think, but I didn't find it funny, clever or amusing at all, just dull and pretentious. I think I've come to the conclusion that I don't much care for Czech New Wave cinema in general. Dillinger is Dead is an Italian arthouse comedy (?) from Marco Ferrari, with Michel Piccoli as an industrialist (his company makes gas masks) who comes home one night and decides to cook his own dinner, instead of letting the help do it. While stumbling around his kitchen, he finds an old revolver that may have belonged to John Dillinger. The film intentionally dwells on the banal, with the emptiness and shallowness of Piccoli's life meant to be depicted to humorous effect. It was a bore, but maybe a livelier one than Cremator. Anita Pallenberg and Annie Girardot appear nude to spice things up. Of course, keeping with the theme of the day, at one point Piccoli runs an old film projector and watches a gory bull fight. Nothing says art like animals suffering! Source: both The Criterion Channel

I'm about 30 minutes in, and so far this is boring me to tears...hopefully it picks up after my break. Edit: It didn't. 5/10 for me, and that's being generous.

Oh, and keeping with the theme I was discussing earlier today, this film also features several sheep getting butchered, and a half dozen or so chickens beheaded and their flailing bodies cast upon the floor around the main character.

The Color of Pomegranates (1969) - 7/10 Soviet arthouse film from writer-director Sergei Parajanov. Ostensibly about the life of medieval Armenian poet and troubadour Sayat Nova (which was the film's original title), this is instead a series of tableaux meant to visualize the "mood and feeling" behind the artist's work, as well as the Armenian people and thei cultural heritage. It's a series of brief, carefully framed shots, with some movement within the shot but none by the camera, that look like paintings come to vibrantly-colored life. There is no narrative at all, and nothing in the way of a traditional biopic. It's unusual, a continuation of the style Parajanov demonstrated with his earlier Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964). If you know what you're in store for, then this can be enjoyed as an artistic experience, but anyone put off by non-traditional filmmaking will have very little tolerance for this. Its 79-minute runtime helps soften the experience, as well. Source: The Criterion Channel

Cemetery Without Crosses (1969) - 7/10 Italian western with Robert Hossein (who also co-wrote and directed) as Manuel, a reclusive gunslinger who lives in a desert ghost town by himself. Maria (Michele Mercier), an old flame of Manuel's, asks for his help in seeking revenge against a family of ranchers who have murdered her husband Ben, who was also an old friend of Manuel's. He agrees, setting in motion a series of violent confrontations. With Lee Burton, Michel Lemoine, Daniel Vargas, Serge Marquand, Pierre Hatet, Philippe Baronnet, and Anne-Marie Balin. Well-done spaghetti western, although it takes some time to figure who's who, as many of the actors look like Gary Merrill. Dario Argento is among the credited screenwriters, although Hossein claims that Argento had nothing to do with the movie. Sergio Leone also reportedly directed the dinner scene. Source: Amazon Prime video

Frankenstein (1925) Victor Frankenstein - Conrad Veidt The Creature - Lon Chaney Elizabeth Lavenza, Victor's fiancee - Greta Garbo Henry Clerval, Victor's friend - Ronald Colman

Law of the Border (1966) - 7/10 Turkish drama from director Lutfi Akad. Tensions mount along the southern Turkish border with Syria, as the impoverished Kurds, unable to find work or farm the dry land, turn to smuggling. One particular smuggler, Hidir (Yilmaz Guney), becomes a folk hero as he battles both the authorities and the corrupt merchants who exploit the men who smuggle their wares. This was an excellent glimpse at a social situation that still has relevance, as this is the "Kurdistan" region that's been in the news for the past 25+ years. The film's second half has a lot of action, and resembles a western to some extent. And while some sheep run through a minefield, none appear to have been actually hurt for the film. Yilmaz Guney became a major Turkish film star, later running into trouble with the government before being sent to prison for murdering a judge. Guney continued to write scripts behind bars, although the films that he directed before were confiscated and destroyed by the government. Guney eventually escaped incarceration and fled to France, where the semi-autobiographical film Yol (1982) won much acclaim. Law of the Border was chosen as one of the films to be restored by Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project, which works to preserve neglected important films from around the globe. 40 films have been worked on up to this date, and Criterion had released two DVD box sets, each containing 6 films, while others (Black Girl, Memories of Underdevelopment) have received standalone editions. Law of the Border was in the worst condition of any of the movies from the WCP that I've watched thus far. According to the notes presented at the beginning of the film, all copies were thought destroyed, but one was found in very wretched condition, and what I watched was the best that could be done. It still looks better than some of the prints of movies that TCM has shown, but it's a sad contrast to the preservation success of the other films in the series that I've seen. Source: The Criterion Channel

Dracula (1963) Dracula - Maximilian Schell Mina Murray - Diana Rigg Jonathan Harker - Terence Stamp Lucy Westenra - Julie Christie Arthur Holmwood - James Fox Dr. John Seward - Tom Courtenay Quincey Morris - Clint Eastwood Professor Van Helsing - Ralph Richardson Renfield - John Hurt brides of Dracula - Daliah Lavi, Delphine Seyrig, Martine Beswick

I agree with your sentiments here. But you forgot Suspicion. I would rank it behind the other Hitchcocks, but ahead of Charade, despite Suspicion's cop-out ending.

I never liked Arabesque.

Dry Summer (1963) - no rating Turkish drama about a mean tobacco farmer (Erol Tas) who dams up the valley's water source as the spring is on his property. This cuts off the supply to the other farmers in region, causing tensions to escalate, eventually leading to violence. This was a fairly engaging drama for a while, and a glimpse at a culture I'm not too familiar with (I've only seen about a half dozen Turkish films). However, I once again hit the same hurdle that I've been encountering with a lot of my movie viewing lately: animal cruelty. Fairly early on, the jerk farmer cuts the head off a live chicken on screen, just to throw the twitching, bloody corpse at his new sister-in-law as a "joke". That's bad enough, but I could grudgingly accept it, as chickens are killed all the time for food. However, a little while later in the film, when the other farmers have decided to strike back against the water-hoarding main character, one of them shoots the guy's dog with a shotgun. This is done on screen, with no cuts, so the dog killing is very real and very graphic, with the dog howling and writhing in agony, with later close-ups of its bloodied corpse. I get that cultures are different, and times are different. But there was a disturbing trend in a lot of 60's and 70's films toward animal cruelty, both staged and all too real. Source: The Criterion Channel

I never liked Charade.

The Body Stealers (1969) - 4/10 British science fiction mystery with Patrick Allen (the poor man's Stanley Baker) as Bob Megan, a dashing government investigator who is asked by the military to look into a strange series of disappearances. It seems parachuting pilots are vanishing into thin air during their descents, and it may have something to do with a strange red mist seen in the area at the time. With Lorna Wilde, Hilary Dwyer, Neil Connery (the poor man's Sean Connery, his brother), George Sanders (the rich man's Tom Conway), Robert Flemyng, Allan Cuthbertson, Michael Culver, and Maurice Evans (the financially stable man's Maurice Evans). From producer Tony Tenser's Tigon Pictures (the poor man's Amicus, which was the poor man's Hammer Film), this is pretty silly and dumb, although it's almost worth it to see the respectable British cast trying to keep a straight face. Source: internet

Vixen! (1968) - 7/10 Exploitation gem from director Russ Meyer. Vixen Palmer (Erica Gavin) is married to charter pilot Tom (Garth Pillsbury), but due to his job, she's often left alone at their rural British Columbia cabin. She beds any man she can behind Tom's back, and even goes after the men he brings home for fishing excursions. Vixen, a virulent racist, also butts heads with Niles (Harrison Page), a black American draft-dodging biker who hangs out with Vixen's brother. With Jon Evans, Vincene Wallace, Robert Aiken, Peter Carpenter, and Michael Donovan O'Donnell. Meyer was making the highest quality exploitation films of the period, with professional cinematography and enjoyably camp performances. The genre is hard to pin down, a mix of comedy, melodrama, skin flick, and political statement. Gavin is terrific in the lead, playing a gorgeous yet loathsome person. And she's the protagonist! Source: internet

Well, it was common to cast foreign actors in European films from the 1950's on. Italian films featured everyone from Anthony Quinn, Broderick Crawford, and Richard Basehart to Clint Eastwood, Steve Reeves and Bette Davis. And they were all dubbed, at least in the European/Italian versions. It was thought that having a familiar face would increase box office in other territories, which I guess is true. Most European countries did this occasionally, but it was common place for Italian films. I made the same complaint about Il Bidone and Richard Basehart's dubbing. It was more bothersome than Broderick Crawford's in the same film, because the guy they chose to dub Basehart sounded a lot more different than the one chosen for Crawford. I guess I would rather they cast people who can speak the language in the film rather than dub them, although there are plenty of movies that I've liked and even loved with dubbed performances, too.

You can't read the subtitles and look at the actors at the same time? I watch a lot of subtitled films, and yes, I notice the actors while also reading the subtitles. It's also a matter of knowing what Stamp and Wiazemsky sound like from seeing them in other films. Some of the others may have been dubbed by others, but I'm not familiar with their voices, so I didn't notice.

Teorema (1968) - 7/10 Italian drama with touches of surrealism, political allegory and fantasy, from writer-director Pier Paolo Pasolini. A mysterious stranger, identified only as The Visitor (Terence Stamp), arrives at the estate of a wealthy bourgeois family. He consoles, comforts and seduces each member of the family, including the son (Andres Jose Cruz Soublette), the daughter (Anne Wiazemsky), the mother (Silvana Mangano), and the father (Massimo Girotti), as well as the pious maid (Laura Betti). When The Visitor then leaves, each member of the household reacts in striking ways. This is a well made film, with good cinematography, and a good score (partially by Ennio Morricone). It was also a lot more chaste than I was expecting; for some reason, I was prepared for a Salo-style litany of outrages, but nothing in this movie would cause a ripple nowadays. I'm not really sure what Pasolini was saying, either. I've read that it was an indictment of middle-class complacency and American consumerism, as well as a call for societal upheaval. Sure, if you say so. I also had a hard time with the Italian dubbing on Stamp and Wiazemsky, but that couldn't be helped, I guess. I still thought the film was interesting, and I was never bored by it. Source: The Criterion Channel

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968) - 6/10 Arthouse quasi-documentary from director William Greaves. A group of filmmakers are working on a film in Central Park, while another film crew films the behind-the-scenes action. With Patricia Ree Gilbert and Don Fellows as the stars of the film-within-a-film. The nature of drama and narrative is deconstructed, I guess, but this seems terribly dated now, as there are literally hundreds of DVD/Blu-ray bonus features that depict the same trials and tribulations of filmmaking and the creative process, and those are focused on actual movies rather than a fictional one. Source: The Criterion Channel

Stolen Kisses (1968) - 7/10 French comedy from writer-director Francois Truffaut. Antoine Doniel (Jean-Pierre Leaud), the young protagonist of The 400 Blows (1959), is now in the army, but he's soon drummed out of the service for being irresponsible. Back in civilian life, he struggles to find and maintain a job until he becomes the unlikely new employee of a private detective agency. While Antoine tries to rekindle an old affair with contemporary Christine (Claude Jade), he finds himself also smitten with the wife (Delphine Seyrig) of one of his clients (Michel Lonsdale). With Harry-Max, Andre Falcon, Daniel Ceccaldi, Catherine Lutz, and Marie-France Pisier. I went into this expecting to hate it, but was in fact charmed and amused. It has sharp dialogue, a great cast of characters, and excellent pacing. Source: The Criterion Channel

Neither do I. Some people seem to be afflicted with some malady that only allows them to communicate via other people's Tweets. And lately it seems to be spreading to other parts of the message board, like a bad rash or fungal growth.

Opening the week of Friday, August 23: Angel Has Fallen Ready or Not Overcomer Brittany Runs a Marathon American Factory

Panic in the City (1968) - 5/10 Suspense thriller with Howard Duff as a government agent trying to stop a bunch of commies led by Nehemiah Persoff from setting off a nuke in L.A. With Linda Cristal, Anne Jeffreys, Dennis Hopper, Oscar Beregi, Stephen McNally, John Hoyt, Steve Franken, Wesley Lau, and Mike Farrell. This looks like a TV movie, but it wasn't. It's very routine, with no surprises or tension. I watched it for Hopper, in his last role before Easy Rider, here playing a paid killer for all of 5 minutes. Source: Amazon Prime video

The kid should have used a knife.

The Star was one of the first movies that I saw when I decided to try and see all of the Oscar-nominated or winning films from the acting, picture, and directing categories. I think it may have been on AMC, as I didn't have TCM at the time. I disliked it quite a bit, and for a long time considered it one of the worst films that I'd seen that was nominated for an Oscar. I also thought Bette Davis was terrible in it, and didn't seek out any other movies with her in the cast for a long time. On the other hand, I think Sunset Boulevard is one of the all-time great films. Maybe I should see The Star again. Maybe not.